Essex County NJ Archives Biographies.....Edward BALBACH, (Jr.) 1838 - 1910
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Author: Mary Depue Ogden, Editor (1917)
BALBACH, Edward, Jr.,
Metallurgist, Inventor,
Edward Balbach, late of Newark, New Jersey, died at the Hotel Savoy, New York
City, where he had resided for some time, on December 30, 1910, in the
seventy-second year of his age. His death was felt as a loss, not merely by the
community of which he was a distinguished member, but by the smelting and
refining trades the country over, which his efforts had been instrumental in
developing and bringing up to their present state of perfection.
Edward Balbach, Sr., was the pioneer of the smelting business in the United
States. Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, was the city where Mr. Balbach was born June
4, 1839, and where his family had dwelt for many years previously. His father,
Edward Balbach, Sr., was a man of very enterprising nature who came to this
country during the Revolutionary troubles in 1848 in Germany, bringing with him
his son, at that time a lad eight years of age. Mr. Balbach, Sr., was a chemist
of large technical learning and considerable practical experience, and had been
engaged in the smelting and refining of metals in his native city of Carlsruhe
during his young manhood. It was his intention upon coming to the United States
to establish himself in the same business, a project which he carried out with
great success. The city of Newark, New Jersey, was the scene of his operations,
and in the year 1851 he built a plant there (this was the first smelter built in
the United States) and began the business which has since, under the able
management of himself and son, grown to such enormous proportions. It was at
first confined to refining work, such materials as jewelers' sweepings and other
waste products forming the basis of the operations, but it was not a great while
before other kinds of work were done and smelting became an important element in
the business.
During this time the son, the Edward Balbach of this sketch, was growing up to
manhood and gaining an excellent education, especially in the subject of
chemistry, for which he had an unusual natural talent. His practical knowledge
was gained in working in his father's plant, where he came in contact with all
the details of the manufacturing process, and was soon an experienced worker in
the craft. In the year 1864, when he was twenty-five years of age, Mr. Balbach,
who had already given a great deal of theoretical study to the subject, devised
a new means of separating the precious metals, silver and gold, from what are
known as silver-lead ores, such large quantities of which are found in Nevada.
The treatment of these ores up to that time had been an extremely costly one,
and not at all adequate in the removal of the metals, so that Mr. Balbach's new
process was a great boom to the smelter and refiner, and has practically
revolutionized the trade both in the United States and in Europe, where it has
universally been adopted. It is thus described in "The Engineering Mining
Journal," a scientific journal devoted to mining interests which, although
somewhat technical, is not too much so to prevent the average reader from
gaining a clear idea of it. Says "The Journal:"
The practice was to soften the lead first in a reverberatory furnace, followed
by a liquating furnace, then desilverized by the addition of zinc in a kettle;
separate the gold-silver-zinc-lead alloy by liquation in a special furnace;
refine the desilverized lead by heating in a reverberatory furnace, drawing it
off into a market kettle and moulding in one hundred pound pigs; distilling the
gold-silver-zinc-lead alloy in a tilting retort, invented by A. Faber du Faur,
condensing about fifty per cent, of the zinc for further use, and obtaining from
the retort a rich gold-silver-lead bullion, which was cupelled. The important
modification was the distilling of the zinc crust.
This has become generally known as the Balbach resilvering delivering process
and, as has been said, has modified the trade throughout the world. In the same
year, 1864, the elder Mr. Balbach took his son into partnership with him, the
firm becoming known from that time forward as Edward Balbach & Son. The great
shipments of silver-lead products from Nevada were at that time almost
exclusively divided between the Balbach works in Newark and the Selby plant in
San Francisco, and for many years these two concerns did practically the whole
work of this kind in the country, so that large amounts of the refined metals
were imported from Europe. This condition, of course, was favorable to the
growth of the domestic business, and under the capable direction of the two
Messrs. Balbach, the concern grew rapidly in size until at the present time it
employs between seven and eight hundred men in its plants. The main plant at
Doremus avenue and Newark Bay, Newark, known as the Newark Bay plant, covers
about four acres of ground, and it is here that the great gold and silver
refining operations are carried on. The Balbach re-silvering process is not by
any means the extent of Mr. Balbach's contribution to the art of refining
metals. He was the inventor of many devices now generally used in smelting, such
as retorting and tilting furnaces, and the employment of water jackets, and many
others equally important. In 1881 Mr. Balbach erected the first commercial plant
in the United States for the refining of copper by electrolysis, and thus laid
the foundation of one of the gigantic industries of the country, one in which it
outranks any other in the world. This plant is situated at Passaic and Ferguson
streets.
The old home of the Balbach family was at No. 111 Passaic avenue, then a
delightful neighborhood, which has, however, been spoiled since that time for
residential purposes by the gradual contamination of the Passaic river from the
multitude of mills upon its banks, extending all the way from Newark itself up
to Paterson, and even beyond. In the year 1884 this old home was the scene of a
noteworthy reception given to Grover Cleveland, who had just at that time
received the Democratic nomination for President. Mr. Balbach, who was always a
strong supporter of Mr. Cleveland, was also his personal friend, and this
friendship grew and ripened after this event, and was only brought to an end by
Mr. Cleveland's death in 1908. Mr. Balbach, Sr., died in 1889, and sometime
afterwards the younger man turned the old home into offices for the company, and
purchased a beautiful property near Bernardsville, New Jersey, which has since
heen developed into a splendid estate. It was here that he lived during the
summer months for many years, spending the winters partly in New York City and
partly in Florida.
Apropos of Mr. Balbach's relations to the general smelting and refining
industries in the United States, the paper already quoted from remarks that: "He
may be considered as a born chemist and metallurgist, and was never slow to
profit by new inventions, adapting and applying them with success to the needs
of the works in connection with the improvements already noted as the results of
his own studies and genius. At the same time he always remained the practical
smelting man, who had studied and learned the business from the bottom up, with
a tireless energy and zeal, setting a constant and good example to the younger
generation by presence at his post both early and late."
Mr. Balbach was active in the community outside of his purely private business
interests, and always took a keen interest in its public affairs. His political
affiliations have already been commented upon, but there is much more to be said
concerning his relations with the Democratic party—that his allegiance was in no
other way a prejudiced one, and that he was perfectly capable of exercising an
absolutely independent judgment in every question that arose. The truth of this
is admirably illustrated by his action in 1896, when the Democratic party was
split over the question of free silver. Mr. Balbach refused to support Mr.
Bryan, and it is claimed that he voted for McKinley upon that occasion. He
afterwards returned to the Democratic ranks, however, when the money issue had
been dropped. He rather shrank from public office than courted it, and was only
once persuaded to accept any important nomination, and that was in 1894, when
George C. Ludlow ran for the Governorship of New Jersey. Mr. Balbach was the
candidate for Congressman from his Congressional district, but was defeated with
the rest of the ticket in a strongly Republican year. He was appointed to a
constitutional commission in New Jersey, and aided in making some much needed
changes and reforms in the existing state of the law. He served twice as a
Presidential elector. He was a member of the Newark Board of Trade and of the
Newark Automobile Club. In his religious belief he was an Episcopalian,.and for
many years attended Trinity Church in Newark.
The position occupied in the life of Newark by Mr. Balbach is not to be
conveyed by a mere categorical description of his achievements. His personality,
his charities, his general attitude in life, all contributed to it, and the
great number of devoted friends that he possessed bears witness to its
character. His philanthropies were large but very quietly carried on, and few
indeed were they who knew of them other than the two parties to them—he who
gave, and he who received. In no other way was this more creditably known than
in his dealings with the great number of employees who worked in his mills, a
relation which resulted in a very rare feeling of friendship and confidence
between them. He kept a personal supervision over the men, and if one was
injured or became ill, he saw that he was well cared for until able to be about
once more. On this point the "Journal," which we have already quoted remarks:
"What endeared him to his business associates and friends was his kind and
cheerful disposition, combined with a straightforward character marked by a
modest and unassuming manner, notwithstanding that he possessed force and the
faculty to carry through his ideas to a successful end. He recognized in those
around him every worthy effort in the direction of self-improvement, and strove
to assist every honest endeavor."
Mr. Balbach was united in marriage with Miss Julia Anna Nenninger, of Newark,
a daughter of Peter Franz Nenninger, a native of Germany, who came to Newark
about 1848. For many years Mrs. Balbach was a conspicuous figure in the Newark
social world, and was well known as one of the most charming of hostesses. She
was, however, a victim of ill health, and for some time lived in seclusion. It
was in some measure due to this fact that the family eventually made their home
at Iiernardsville, where Mrs. Balbach anticipated living much in the open air.
Indeed it was she who laid out and superintended the arrangement of the grounds
of the estate, without the assistance of a landscape gardener, with what succes
is well known in the community. A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Balbach, who
is now the wife of Edward Randolph, of New York, the president and treasurer of
the great smelting company. Mrs. Balbach and her daughter both survive Mr.
Balbach.
Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY
UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN
VOLUME III
MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK, NEW JERSEY
1917
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